Vampire

I mentioned yesterday that I spent too much time in the sun without sunscreen. I am so embarrassed to show myself in public today. People were staring more than normal... Wasn't able to go to Huara today, because being outside made my skin burn. I had to hug the walls to stay in the shade. Felt like a vampire...
I was able to check the Internet and found out my great niece will start bottle feeding this week. Great progress.

Four hours fun in the sun = pain

I was invited to watch a soccer game at a stadium this morning at 10 am. Had written down the address so I could tell a moto taxi where to take me, and I made my way there. My boy J, plays on a team with adults and other teenagers and they have a tournament during the summer months 

When I arrived, I realized I should have listened to the small quite voice that whispered "put on sunscreen" before I left my house. This was not the type of stadium with seats and shade that I am used to when I think of a stadium. It was a large grassy field, that's it... There had been a few clouds when I left home, but by the time I made myself comfortable on a spot in the grass, those clouds were nowhere in sight. 

I enjoyed a soccer game that was in progress, but there were no signs of my boy until I was just about to leave. His game ended up starting at 12 pm, so I stayed 2 more hours to watch... I moved his shirt around to cover parts of my arms and legs throughout the game, but will look horrible tomorrow. I am sure I will get blisters from this burn. I was also wearing sunglasses so I will have a nice raccoon look as well. The sun here is so much stronger than anything I'm used to on the Northern hemisphere...

The coach that had brought him from the orphanage allowed me to bring him back all by myself. I wish I had freedom to do things in the community more often. I would have loved to take him out to lunch before going back, but was afraid I would get caught and loose my good standing with the people in charge. I'm always a bit nervous that one day they will tell me that I can't come back anymore. 

Great aunt

I am a proud GREAT AUNT (!) to a 3 lb, 2oz baby girl. While I spent the past 4 days in Lima, lots was happening with my family at a hospital in Mississippi. For now, both my niece and baby are well, but for a while we didn't know if my niece or the baby were actually going to survive. We have all been on a crazy emotional roller coaster these last few days. 

so little and helpless

I did get a lot done in Lima. One night I ran into my Peruvian/Swedish friend whom I met last year. It's funny that you can run into someone in a town as large as Lima, but I guess we both spend most of our time in the same neighborhood... He was on his way home, but we went to his favorite restaurant and had a drink (coffee and juice). It was great to spend some time together and catch up. Ended up talking a lot about Swedish and Peruvian government and politics... I learned a lot that night. He also might be able to help me get a visa that would allow me to stay longer here. We talked for so long I think he might have missed his last bus home.

Caught the bus back home again today and spent the afternoon with the girls helping with homework. 

Yenny

I made a new friend today. My friend's introduced me to a woman living at the hospital. Her son lives at the orphanage and her daughter lives with the dad's mother. She has now been there for about 18 months and she is in need of constant oxygen. Her lungs are failing and her body is slowly shutting down. Can you imagine starting at the same boring walls for 18 months?? She is an amazing person, so full of spunk, despite her situation. I promised her I would start visiting her every week and she asked me to teach her English. She didn't care my Spanish is kind of crappy, but was beaming that I would be coming regularly to visit her. I am so excited to get to know her and hear her story.

Today the girls got taught about rejection and several of the older ones were crying. So many of them have suffered sexual and emotional abuse and haven't dealt with the aftermath yet... I pray this is the beginning of them finding healing and restoration.
Afterwards we took all the kids to the movies and dinner. We watched T arzan and there was a moment when we all thought the gorilla mom was dead. I believe that was really sad moment for my boy J. I think he missed his mother who died last December. He laid his head on my shoulder just then. I wish I had the power to remove all their pain so they can just be little kids...

VBS

My missionary friends from Lima came today and started doing a Vacation Bible Study with the kids. So many of them have all their emotional pain bottled up and have a faulty view of who they are and don't know how valuable they are. I loved that they were being taught truth today. My friends were teaching them about rejection and had the kids write down negative feelings they have. I hope they can begin to process these things before they become adults and get into relationships. No other person will be able to fill the wholes in their heart and soul. But that won't stop them from looking for it in every person they meet, unless God intervenes and heals them. I know this from personal experience.
Yesterday, I got play Santa Claus. I delivered the baby clothes I had scored in thrift stores in the States to two new young mothers. It was so fun, and I got to rock a baby to sleep too... sigh...

Great news from AK!

Haven't gotten to see the kids for a few days now, but wanted to give them time to settle into their new routines, and I have also had trouble catching the lady at the orphanage that I need to speak with to arrange for my future visits.
It's been kind of good to have a few days to get my affairs in order as well. I spent several hours yesterday sorting through last years receipts for tax purposes, and it was way overdue!
Today I found out that my house church in AK had collected $750 to go towards a young pregnant girl I know. The money will go toward vitamins, food, and eventually diapers, a stroller, baby clothes etc. She will know that God has not forgotten her! I can't wait to tell her that people as far away as AK cares about her and her baby.
I also went to an internet place and had the opportunity to watch most of the baby dedication from my home church. Several of my friends have recently had babies, and I was so thankful I was able to watch it online. It did make me miss them all so much more though. When I am in Lima this weekend I will try to catch up on the sermons online too... Helps me feel more connected to my church family at home.

Haircuts

When I arrived to see the boys I was met by lots of short haircuts. Everybody gets a haircut for first day back to school. Instead of English classes today, I joined them at the police station, where they had final games between the teams from summer. Unfortunately my boys didn't get to play, but we didn't find out until it was time for prices and recognition. It was still fun to watch the games with the boys, and I also had a pretty good conversation with a man that was a psychology intern at the orphanage last year, but was now working at a school. He came to watch the boys too. I was amazed how well we understood each other, but maybe it was because he had lived in Japan for 3 years and know what it is like trying to learn another language...

End of summer performance

After teaching the girls this morning, I was informed they were going to have a dance performance later that afternoon, and they invited me to come back. They had told me to be there at 4 pm, but it didn't start until sometime after 5 pm, so I had plenty of time to hangout with the little ones and help with set-up too. It turns out it wasn't just a dance performance, but a celebration of all the different summer activities the orphanage had arrange, for example craft and art projects. All the bigwigs were there. Several children got to go before the audience and describe the project they had been involved in and show off the result. I was so proud of them, even the very shy ones did really well. I got to have two of the little girls in my lap the whole time. The boys had dressed up nicely too and they smelled clean and fresh. I was officially thanked as well, as the "English teacher". Ended up being there for about 3 hours tonight, and going home I felt like I was floating on a cloud from all the precious moments I got to share with them during that time.
Several of the workers have expressed that they hope I get to continue to come and help with the kid's English homework once school starts. I am hoping that is what will happen too.

Shopping is always an adventure

I always miss the kids when I don't see them on Sundays, so I welcome Monday mornings. Saw the boys today, had a small group plus a private lesson and we got much done. Afterwards I stayed behind to play hangman because they love it. Sometimes we take turns, I'll do English words for them to guess and then we switch and they pick a Spanish one for me.
Some of the other boys were fooling around a lot, wanting to talk about certain drugs. I've had some concerns about one of them who is very withdrawn most of the time and often very angry. I fear he would be a candidate to escape into drugs to avoid his feelings and problems. He has a lot of clothing and jewelry in colors promoting certain drugs and really likes that image of himself. I shared some of my concerns the best I could, but I don't think it made much of an impact. I have seen first hand what drugs do to lives, and I don't want that life for any of the kids. I love them so much. Maybe I will get a chance later to talk to him alone. They try to be cool in front of each other, so I'll wait for an opportunity and brush up on the vocabulary so I'm ready.

A few of the boys have been making bracelets and earrings with one of the teachers and last week the girls had asked me to get them some bracelets and today I was able to buys some from them to bring to the girls tomorrow. Found them all their favorite colors!

At 4 pm I met up with my friend, the taxi driver, and he helped me buy the rest of my living room furniture. It was quite an adventure and it took over an hour to just pay for it and get them loaded up. The patio furniture set I wanted was a display set and they gave no discount for being a little dirty and dusty like they would have in the States or other places. I had brought about $360, but when I tried to pay, they quoted me about $130 more. Turns out in order to get the lower price you have to pay with the store credit card. I was bummed and thought I would have to come back another day with more money. My friend spoke with the cashier and she agreed to help us try to convince another customer with a card to let me buy it on theirs and give them the cash. I was pretty skeptical to the whole idea, but the cashier eventually succeeded in talking another customer into it. After that came the job of cleaning off the furniture and loading all 4 pieces into and onto my friend's little car. Again I was skeptical that we would manage it all in one load, but we fit the two chairs, love seat, the table and all the cushions!! Drove very slowly the 2 blocks while holding the furniture down with our hands out the windows... No ropes needed here!
I have a real home now!

Vamos a la playa

Summer is almost over for the kids, with school starting again soon. I had only one boy in my English class today, but he did really well, despite the rest of the boys playing crazily all around us. It was amazing we could hear each other at all...
After that we all got ready and went to the beach for about two hours. It was late in the afternoon, so I could handle the sun without getting too red. Ran into the girls there too, but they quickly got separated from the boys to another part of the beach. It's not often they get to interact with each other, except during celebrations.

I love to see the kids being free to be kids away from the tall walls of the orphanage. Some of the boys were catching fish by using anything they could find on the beach, cloth or plastic bags and a broken bucket... Brought back fun childhood memories of me doing the same in Sweden, but with my butterfly catcher. Others were diving in the big ocean waves. My favorite part of the day was when one of the workers dropped a wet, shivering little 4 year old, wrapped up in a towel in my lap. I got to snuggle with him until he got warm.
We also found a tangled up fishing net someone had dumped on the beach. The kids and I dug through it for crabs. One of the workers was going to eat them for dinner when she go home... No health department regulations here. I was a little nervous on her behalf, since we don't know how long they had been sitting in the sun, but she brushed me off and said they were OK to eat.
 
There are 3 little round pools on the beach, and the water is warmer and cleaner than in the ocean. The ocean here is actually pretty polluted due to all the fishing boats fishing close to the shore. I really loved watching the older boys help the little ones in the water. It's great to see them behave as a family and look out for each other. I hope they will grow up and take care of their own children, so they won't end up in orphanages and continue the cycle.

Went to the movies tonight and had a hot dog for dinner, wondering if I will regret that bold move...
There is a party on my street, so I'm shutting all my windows and plugging my ears hoping I will get some sleep before the daylight is here again.